


Care for Me

by f_lame_alchemist



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 06:50:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6108529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/f_lame_alchemist/pseuds/f_lame_alchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ladybug is injured in a fight with an akumatized villain, her only chance at getting help involves something she has tried very hard to avoid: letting Chat Noir know who she is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Care for Me

**Author's Note:**

> This only works if the Evillustrator episode never happened (if Marinette has never met Chat Noir). I suppose that sort of makes it an AU?

“Duck!” Ladybug didn’t even take the time to process the word. Chat Noir’s tone said enough, and so she dropped to the ground. Something sailed over her head.

“Good call, Chat, thanks!”

The thing that had almost squished her appeared to be a cement road barrier. She and Chat had been able to drive the akuma victim back to a blocked-off area the police had set up a while ago for exactly this sort of thing: few people would be around, and so the risk of injuring bystanders was minimal. It had been Ladybug’s idea.

This particular villain was really something; it was the most evenly matched fight Ladybug could remember. He could move inanimate objects remotely, like some kind of psychokinesis, and called himself “The Magician.” Probably a clue as to who he was in real life, but that wouldn’t matter until Ladybug was able to free the akuma and turn it back into a butterfly.

“How about, the _Levitator.”_ Chat Noir was still trying to come up with a better name than The Magician.

Ladybug pressed her palm into her forehead. “Chat, that’s _not important_ right now.”

“I know, but today hasn’t been a good day for jokes,” he remarked, batting away a piece of asphalt with his pole.

“This is getting ridiculous.” She and her partner had cornered their enemy in this barrier spot, but couldn’t get any closer than ten feet. They kept getting driven further back. The guy laughed evilly. He was hell-bent on getting Ladybug and Chat’s miraculouses, and didn’t seem to have revealed any other motive yet. That was a good thing.

A new volley of objects flew at them, and with one sideways look Ladybug and Chat Noir sprinted forward simultaneously. Ladybug slid under a lamp post, then vaulted over a large rock, taking cover in an alley. Chat Noir was beside her in a second, but with a scrape on his cheek.

“It’s lucky that you didn’t get hurt, my Lady.”

“At least we’re closer to this guy.” She didn’t have time for his comments.

“'This guy'? You mean, the _Psycho_ kinetic?”

Ladybug was ready to punch him. “ _Chat!_ ”

“Sorry, Bug, couldn’t help it.”

“Shhhh!” There was no noise outside, the Magician seemed to have stopped throwing things around.

“What do you think he’s doing?”

“Should we find out?”

“On three.”

She and Chat Noir ran back out into the middle of the street, to find that a few things had changed. A crowd of spectators had arrived, along with the police. The Magician was standing, or rather floating, with an assortment of objects orbiting him.

Ladybug spun her yo-yo around as a shield, and Chat separated his pole so he had one piece in each hand. The Magician reached up to adjust something, and Marinette came to a realization.

“Chat!” she hissed, “it’s in the hat.”

“I didn’t know you were a poet, Bugaboo.”

“I do not _care_ that I made a rhyme, we have a _job_ to do.” Ladybug was still laughing in spite of herself, and Chat Noir grinned. Again they tried to run forwards, and were met by a storm of objects.

Ladybug was in the clear, crouching behind a parked car. She peeked around the side, and saw Chat Noir trying to get closer to the Magician. Her arm had been hit and it was stiff to move, she needed a quick break.

Chat swiped his pole and knocked another chunk of asphalt out of the way, but was unprepared for the brick that followed. It hit him squarely in the chest, and sent him sprawling.

The Magician laughed, holding a cable high above his head, ready to strike Chat. Chat wasn’t getting up. “Yield! Give me your Miraculous!”

“Hey!” Ladybug stood on top of the car, spinning her yo-yo. The Magician turned towards her. “Lucky Charm!” She tossed it high in the air, and when it came back down she had a red piece of bent wood with the signature black spots.

She didn’t have time to figure out what she could possibly do with it. The Magician had already turned his attention away from her and back towards Chat. She had hoped that she could give Chat enough time to get away, but he must’ve gotten hit harder than she thought.

The Magician’s cable flew towards Chat while he stayed on the ground, eyes widening in fear, and Ladybug made a hasty decision.

\--

“I- L- Ladybug!” Chat gasped, though Ladybug could hardly hear it. For an instant, nothing existed but the searing pain in her side. The cable stuck out of her suit, and she yanked it away, screaming with the pain and dropping to her knees.

She tossed the piece of wood Lucky Charm had given her, hoping she would be lucky enough for it to do whatever it was intended to do. The dots on her earrings were starting to disappear, and she wondered if it was possible her transformation would end more quickly if she was injured.

Chat was standing in front of her. When did that happen? “ _Cataclysm!_ ” A huge piece of concrete, probably another barrier, disintegrated. It had been flying towards the both of them, thrown by the Magician. Chat Noir began to run forward, swinging his pole, but he didn’t need to do much. The piece of wood came rushing back and knocked the Magician’s top hat off from behind. It rolled right in front of Ladybug.

“A boomerang. Good one, Ladybug!” Chat continued to push the Magician back as Ladybug ripped the hat in half. The akuma flew out, and Ladybug wasn’t quite sure how she managed to de-evilize it, but somehow she did. The butterfly flew away and she collapsed again.

Chat handed her the boomerang, and she tossed that up in the air too. “Miraculous Ladybug!” That was it for her, blackness was creeping into her vision and the pain was overwhelming.

“Ladybug!” Chat Noir sounded panicked, as though he hadn’t realized the extent of her injury before, but she couldn’t do anything about that. He picked her up and ran off the scene.

He stopped in a back alley and set her down. Nobody would find them there. “Chat, my transformation…”

“Ladybug, I can’t take you to a hospital right now. Your transformation would disappear and your secret would be out.”

“I…” There was definitely a logic to what Chat was saying, but she couldn’t figure it out. Everything was foggy and painful, and something in the back of Ladybug’s mind suggested _bloodloss_. “Hospital, good idea.”

“Okay. I’m going to stay with you until your transformation ends. It’s the only way, My Lady.”

The final beep on her earrings sounded, while Chat Noir was nowhere near out of time. She must’ve been right about the injury thing.

“Chat…” something looked strange. Marinette was reaching her hand toward his face, but she had never seen that particular view without a red suit covering her fingers. Something about her pale skin next to Chat Noir’s face mask seemed very strange and wrong, but the pain was too much. She couldn’t figure it out. Blackness reappeared, and her ears rang, and her arm went limp.

\--

Marinette woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by people she knew. Her parents were there, and an assortment of her classmates, as well as a couple of doctors. “I…”

A doctor stepped forward. “Good to see you’re awake. Chat Noir told us what happened.” _Oh, no._ Memories flooded back. _Chat._ He knew who she was, now.

“What...what did he say?” Dread twisted in Marinette’s stomach, alongside the pain in her side.

“He said you were a bystander, and that you had been hurt during the fight. He must’ve felt so guilty that he brought you here himself.”

Marinette couldn’t help but smile a bit. A perfect story. “Sounds just like him.”

People were in and out during the whole day. Her parents spent time alone with her, and her class came to visit. Butterflies danced in her stomach when she noticed that Adrien was there, but he was acting a bit strangely. Maybe he didn’t like hospitals.

Alya got some alone time with her. “Girl, what on _e_ _arth_ were you doing there?”

“I wanted...um, I wanted to get some footage for the Ladyblog!”

“Blogging is a dangerous business,” Alya stated, half-joking, and they laughed as Alya developed a new superhero, Superblogger.

When they were finally she on their own, after visiting hours, Tikki flew out from under Marinette’s pillow. She didn’t look too good.

“Tikki! You look awful!”

“Marinette, it’s not just you that gets hurt. You can’t transform again until you heal, or the damage to me will be even worse.”

“Is that why my transformation ran out so quickly?”

“Yeah.” Tikki found Marinette’s pudding, and began to eat.

“What do we do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Chat Noir knows who I am.”

Tikki finished off the pudding and sat on the edge of the tray, looking up at Marinette. “So, he knows your face. What’s to say he even knows you in real life? You could just be another stranger to him, Marinette, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

Marinette smiled. “You’re probably right, Tikki. Thank you, you always know how to put me at ease.”

\--

Marinette had fallen into a fitful sleep, and Tikki wasn’t doing much better on the mattress beside her. Every little noise woke them up, and sometimes also the pain.

At 3:34 AM, there was a sort of soft thump on the windowsill outside, and a figure was silhouetted against the curtains by the street light. Marinette and her kwami both watched the person, who had cat ears and a tail, open the window and push the blinds aside, leaping down into the room.

“Chat, I…” Marinette didn’t know what to say, and the silence lasted a few minutes. Clearly, he didn’t know what to say either. He had done the right thing, but there were so many questions that she had still. There was one thing she owed him first, however. “Chat Noir, thank you for saving me today.” She glanced at the clock. “Or yesterday, I guess.”

“Marinette, I’m so sorry this happened. We’re a team, and I shouldn’t have needed that sort of a rescue.”

“You don’t owe me an apology, Chat. I saved your life and then you saved mine. We’re equal again.”

He walked over and sat in the empty chair next to her. Tikki waved, a little nervously, and he smiled back. “When will you be better?”

“I think I can go back to school soon, but I’m not really sure. Once my wound heals, I can get back to fighting.”

“Take your time, my Lady.” Chat put his hand on her arm.

Marinette smiled, and realized how much safer she felt when he was there. “Thanks, kitty.”

“I do owe you something, though. The life-saving part is all good, but there’s something I have that you don’t.”

“Oh?” Marinette had a slight idea of where this was going, and the thought sent a thrill down her spine.

“I know your face, Marinette, it’s time you knew mine.”

Marinette realized something. “My name. You’ve said it twice now, how did you know?”

Chat Noir took his hand back, and twisted his ring a bit. Marinette had always thought it looked had looked a bit familiar. “I know you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Marinette didn’t even know what she was feeling, a mix of emotions was bubbling under the surface.

“Chat, don’t. It’s okay.” She understood what it meant to keep a secret identity, and just because hers was compromised didn’t mean his had to be. This was the safe option, wasn’t it?

“I insist.”

“Chat…” Marinette put her hand on his.

“Let me do this. Marinette, my Lady, you’re going to want to see.”

Marinette sighed and removed her hand. He had clearly put a lot of thought into it, and this was something he was prepared to do.

Chat Noir pulled off his ring, and the light of his detransformation was almost blinding, but Marinette was staring anyways.

This was...impossible. Crazy. It couldn’t be, but it was.

“ _Adrien_?”


End file.
